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We had a nice ride this morning as the Patagonia landscape opened before our eyes. There were a lot of guanacos, think wild alpaca running around the pampas. The view of the Torres was spectacular upon entering the park.

For the birders, seeing some harriers and Magellanic woodpeckers in the first hour of hiking kicked off this first day nicely. The "O" circuit goes counterclockwise around the park. The first portion is private property that the family manages for tourism in cooperation with the national park now. This side is dry grasslands with rolling hills along the Paine River which is a milky turquoise color and full from rain and snowmelt.

Approximately 8 miles brought us to Seron camp, a former ranching outpost turned campgrund. The team is doing well and enjoying some time in the newly installed rooftop style safari tents to get out of the strong wind that has been blowing all day.

We are excited to be out on the trail and away from the airports and hotels for the next 8 days, we will check in from Lago Dickson tomorrow. 

RMI Guide Mike King and Team

The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guides Lacie Smith and Walt Hailes reached Ingraham Flats today. The team was unable to move further up on the mountain due to route conditions. The team was able to do some additional training as well as enjoy a beautiful sunrise from 11,200' on Mt. Rainier. 

Hi there! This is the Kilimanjaro team checking in from our high point today at 15,200 ft. All is well on the trail. The altitude is kicking in but we're all adapting. This afternoon we are going to drop back down a few thousand feet to Barranco Camp. Tomorrow we will tackle the steepest portion of our trek; the Barranco Wall. RMI Guide Seth Waterfall

On The Map

The group got a much-needed rest day in La Paz that included some shopping, laundry and good eating. We went to Ancestral restaurant for dinner, which is one of the top up and coming restaurants in Latin America. Most of us selected our own steaks and we enjoyed an amazing dinner.

The next morning, we loaded our van and headed to Illimani.  After several hours of driving on windy dirt roads we arrived in Another winding dirt road led us to basecamp where we slept next to a peaceful creek under a starry night.

RMI Guides Andy Bond, Henry Coppolillo & Team

Friday, June 23, 2023 - 11:43 pm PDT

After a stormy night it was time to say goodbye to our beautiful Camp 2 on the magnificent Kahiltna glacier. Some of us got a little sentimental about it, as it was home to us for the last five nights. I guess we never had a chance to mention it earlier, but we put quite a lot of effort in our camp to make it nice and neat with the snow walls around it, especially our restroom, this was a piece of art :).

We woke up at 6am and following another great breakfast and then packing we had to wait until we got the right window at 10:30 am for Mother Nature to clear up the weather and let us to move to the higher camp. We ventured into Motorcycle Hill, then retraced our steps from yesterday and went through Squirrel Hill which leads us to through polo field and then the famous windy corner. The Windy Corner deserves its name, yet the Squirrel Hill isn’t any less windy. I was about to fly away two times with the backpack and the sled. When we passed the Windy Corner and started going up the last hill before we reached Camp 3, the mighty Denali decided to show us its warm face. As the sun went up and the wind stopped, we started getting extremely warm on the hill. Since nobody ever claimed a name for this hill before I decided naming it "Double Fry Hill" (I have nine witnesses now :) The upcoming two days stronger weather is waiting for us in the Denalian wilderness. Yet we are hoping to carry the cache tomorrow from 13k.

Today we were lucky to get the right time window to move to our new camping place which is one step closer to conquer the fabulous Denali Summit. The team remains strong, positive, and hopeful that Denali will grant us clear skies in the next few days so we can spread your wings and soar towards its magnificent summit!

Stay tuned.

Till tomorrow! A bientot!

Climber Ilknur Colak & Team

Ps. The word of the day is "clutch" (from Travis)

We made it to the mountain! We got up this morning, had a last cafe breakfast in town, and loaded the YAZ vans for the trip to Elbrus-Northside Basecamp. The YAZ is the itinerant vehicle in rural Russia, and Mike Uchal's next car. Styled like a Volkswagen van, but diesel, four-wheel drive, with nothing but the basics inside, they are built to bounce, bump, splash, and grind their way over terrain, generally at what feels like a fair amount of speed. That's exactly what we did this morning. Our drivers Igor and Yuri deftly maneuvered us over the rough four-wheel drive track that leads to base camp. Upon our arrival, we quickly erected our small city of tents, went for a walk to stretch our legs, dodged into the tents to hide from a passing rain shower, and covered up a delicious dinner of chili. Tomorrow, we'll move a load of things up to the camp on the moraine at 12,000'. We'll be in touch afterwards! RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer

On The Map

The Four Day Summit Climb led by Billy Nugent and the Five Day Summit Climb led by Solveig Waterfall reached the summit of Mt. Rainier just after 7 am today. The teams reported clear skies, calm winds and pleasant temperatures. They spent over an hour on the summit before starting their descent to Camp Muir. The teams will take a short break at Camp Muir to rest and repack before continuing down to Paradise. Congratulations to today's Summit Climbers!

Voice mail received 3 am PT Hey, this is Dave Hahn calling from Mt. Everest. We are about a mile higher then when I spoke to you last night. Seth Waterfall and myself along with Tshering, Kaji and Gyaljen got up super early this morning. We woke up at 1 AM and we're walking by about 2:15 AM. We skipped Camp 3 and went all the way up to the South Col, just a hair below 8,000 meters. It was a big day and obviously aiming for a summit tonight if conditions allow. We don't have a whole lot of ability to wait at this point and the forecasts don't really reward us for waiting much. This expedition is almost at its end. So this is our shot. We are all feeling really good up here at 8000 meters. Seth and I are sitting in the tent right now and it's nice and hot. There is sun coming through the tent walls. There is a little breeze and there are some clouds, but it's not necessarily bad weather. Things are looking good. While we were climbing, we were keeping track of Lam Babu and Dan Johnson. They made great time, great progress to get down to base camp. They arrived there about mid morning – nice and safe and sound. So that is great news all around. We're going to try to keep you updated with the start of our climb. This climb again will be a middle of the night start, with the hope of being up high and close to the summit when the sun is first getting around on Mt. Everest. That is all for now. Bye now.

On The Map

The sun took awhile to reach us this morning, the shoulder of Nuptse standing 9,000' above blocked the sun rays and cast long shadows that gradually crept backwards as the sun rose. By the time we stepped out of the tea-house after 8:00 am the sun hit us and almost instantly began to chase away the nighttime chill. We left Gorak Shep in good spirits, eager to complete the final few hours of walking to Everest Base Camp. The trail becomes notably less defined this far up the valley. In addition to seeing less traffic, the path is ever changing as the loose moraine settles and shifts with the passing glacier and the pull from gravity. Despite Everest Base Camp being a relatively short distance from Gorak Shep as the crow flies, no more than two miles, the trail itself is much longer as it twists and turns over the rough landscape, descending through boulder fields and climbing back up loose scree gullies. We picked our way along it, stepping from rock to rock and occasionally catching glimpses of the tent tops of Base Camp off in the distance. About two thirds of the way to Base Camp the trail finally drops off of the side moraine bordering the glacier and crosses onto its surface. This low down on the glacier the surface is covered in rock that was pulled down from the mountain side further up and large features of ice, pushed up by the pressure of the glacier above, are interspersed with giant pools of frozen water that sit on the glacier surface from when the ice melts in the warm afternoon sun. The walking, while relatively flat, is tricky as every rock lies atop a sheet of ice below and the footing is continually shifting underfoot. Nevertheless, the group navigated the trail well and by midday we crested the final rocky rise and walked into RMI's Everest Base Camp. Our Sherpa team has been busy working up here for the past two weeks, hacking away the shifting ice and rolling the rocks aside to create large platforms on the glacier's surface for our tents to sit on. With the creative eye of a designer, they set up a very comfortable camp here. Our dining tent looks right out at Everest, the lower stretches of the Khumbu Icefall filling the view out the door from inside. A series of large stone steps leads from the Dining Tent to the sleeping tents sitting in a semi circle on a small rise above. Just in front of them stands our Communications Tent, with direct sight to the mountain above for the best radio reception and good exposure to the sun as it tracks across the sky for the solar panels that power all of the equipment. The Kitchen and Storage Tents are just below, with a large stone path leading between them and the Dining Tent above. The Sherpa team greeted us enthusiastically when we arrived, showing us around before we settled down for lunch. Kumar, the Expedition Cook, pulled together an incredible meal complemented with fresh baked rolls and steamed veggies. The change of pace from the typical tea-house food is refreshing and the food was excellent. After lunch we settled into camp, unpacking our gear in our tents and relaxing in the warm afternoon sun. We are all very happy to be here, pleased that we don't have to turn around and walk back to the tea-house this evening and enjoying the life around Base Camp. Everyone continues to adjust well to the altitude and hiked well today. We are spending tomorrow here in Base Camp, enjoying this place for a bit and covering some climbing training in preparation for those of us that are headed to Island Peak next. We want to thank everyone for the great comments on the Blog, we read them aloud over dinner last night and enjoyed hearing the snippets from home. RMI Guide Linden Mallory

On The Map

The Five Day Climb led by RMI Guide Joe Hoch spent two days on the mountain. The team climbed to Ingraham Flats where they were able to spend the day learning crevasse rescue skills. The team had a great couple of days on the upper slopes of Mt. Rainier.